Editorial article section from Croton Blog in Croton on Hudson

Section: Editorial

'We'll Believe Enforcement is the Policy in Croton When We See It'

January 16, 2008

Remember that strip mall at the foot of Maple Street (Route 129) in Croton? The one so badly designed that vehicles blatantly park anywhere and everywhere, even on the sidewalk and on the tiny strips of grass struggling to survive? Yet Croton does nothing to stop them.

After two years of vain waiting something is finally about to happen. A “sidewalk and landscape improvement project” grant has finally been issued by New York State. Because Route 129 is a state highway, Croton is now awaiting a work permit from the Department of Transportation to “replace the sidewalk, add curbing and provide a defined parking plan” for the area in front of the vacancy-prone strip mall at the intersection of Hudson and Maple streets.

The potential for accident or injury to pedestrians at this strip mall always could have been reduced if the village had only enforced its own laws. Over the years, Croton has turned a blind eye to violations when vehicles regularly parked on the sidewalk. In fact, many vehicles, including large pickup trucks, still straddle the sidewalk.

Such violations block safe passage by pedestrians, forcing them to detour around the illegal parkers and walk through the vehicle parking area. This puts them in danger of being struck by vehicles. In the meantime, Croton’s parking enforcement people are busy enforcing parking violation in Croton Commons and the Van Wyck shopping center, two nearby private areas policed by Croton’s parking enforcement people.

Crotonblog reserves judgment on this long-awaited project. If the curbing is not unusually high, we predict that the violators will be back even before the concrete has set. But will such blatant violations then draw a citation from Croton’s parking enforcement people? What’s your guess?

Related:

“Why Is Croton So Selectively Enforcing Its Laws, Mr. Mayor?,” July 8, 2007
“Yoo Hoo! Mayor Schmidt. Your Slip Is Showing!,” July 4, 2007
“The Disaster at the Intersection of Routes 9A and 129 in Croton,” June 26, 2007

Tools: Print

Of Hometown Newspapers and Clouded Crystal Balls

January 14, 2008

In a recent obituary a New York Times writer described The Journal News as “Croton’s hometown newspaper.” Crotonblog would beg to differ. Croton’s hometown newspaper is The Gazette. The Journal News, with its broad-brush coverage, can hardly be described as any Westchester community’s hometown newspaper, any more than USA Today, another Gannett newspaper, could be described as New York City’s hometown newspaper.

In last Friday’s tabloid section of The Journal News called “The Line,” a writer named Ted Mann ventured his predictions of the winners in the upcoming Golden Glove awards. Mr. Mann also writes for a Gawker-style Lohud namedropping blog called Suburbarazzi. It’s a smart-ass virtual rag with a low readership, probably because it is so hard to find among Lohud’s bewildering array of blogs and Internet features.

Thanks to the writers’ strike, a low-key version of an awards ceremony was held in Hollywood last night. Crotonblog was curious to see just how prescient was Mr. Mann when we read the names of winners of Golden Globes this morning. We regret to report that his crystal ball is extremely cloudy and needs a good cleaning with Windex.

Mr. Mann is not a regular film critic for The Journal News, and it shows. Of the twenty-five categories in which Mr. Mann picked winners, he got only eight—or 32 percent—right, and a whopping 68 percent wrong. We cannot avoid the feeling that Mr. Mann would have done better if he had merely closed his eyes and stuck a pin at random in the names of the nominees.

Continue reading "Of Hometown Newspapers and Clouded Crystal Balls."

Tools: Print

Fast Times at Ridgemont High the Village Board

January 13, 2008

A funny thing happened at last Monday night’s village board meeting—or so the Republican majority thought. It set a record for brevity.

After only 15 minutes since starting and three speedily-passed resolutions later, the mayor, nervously shuffling papers, sounded like an inexperienced substitute teacher who had run out of lesson material. With a high-pitched giggle, he remarked, “I think we need to slow it down. We’re breaking land speed records here.” Then he added, “Don’t say that out loud, right?”

But to Trustee Susan Konig, sounding like a student anxious to be somewhere else, the promise of early dismissal from “meeting hell” obviously was the best offer of her busy day. She piped up, “It’s okay. Keep going.”

Immediately thereafter, Village Manager Richard Herbek, an always anxious-to-please classmate, gave out with a hearty “Hahr, hahr, hahr, hahr, hahr!” He was already imagining himself back in Briarcliff Manor by 9:00 p.m.

Teacher’s pet Trustee Thomas Brennan lightheartedly repeated the mayor’s caution, “Don’t say that out loud.” By now everyone knew there would be an early dismissal bell.

Viewers at home could see the wheels beginning to turn under the mayor’s glistening pate. Recovering from his nervous laughter and trying to restore decorum, the mayor suddenly remembered he was on TV and said, “Heh, hmm. People may tune in right now and go, “What happened? They never had a meeting tonight.”

Then, in a deja vu moment, Trustee Brennan reminded everyone that they’ve always had short meetings lately by offering this reminder: “We’ve said this before.”

Crotonblog has never thought the Schmidt team was very adept or serious about governing. Monday night’s brief dog and pony show only proves us right. You don’t believe us? See for yourself.

Video clip:

Continue reading "Fast Times at ~~Ridgemont High~~ the Village Board."

Tools: Print

Thanks a Whole Helluva Lot, Mayor Schmidt

January 4, 2008

At this time, it is customary for publications to review news events of the year just past and to take note of some of the high points. Crotonblog is pleased to follow that custom but has altered it by taking note of the low points in Croton’s governance in 2007. The following are ten awards various organizations have bestowed upon our Mayor Schmidt:

1. The William Marcy “Boss” Tweed Award for Civic Improvement. Earned for encouraging persistent and unsuccessful litigious legal actions racking up $1,500,000.00 in unnecessary legal fees with nothing to show for it other than the court’s blessing of 1A Croton Point Avenue as a waste-disposal site.

2. The Phineas T. Barnum Trophy for Bamboozlng the Public. Given for promising to correct the sinking parking lot. Instead, the parking lot is still sinking at an alarming rate. You responded to the “lowered” services by raising the already-high parking fees for residents and nonresidents alike two years in a row.

3. The Jacques Cousteau Medal for Best Underwater Parking Lot on Any Metro North Line. This award, inscribed with the motto “Park at Your Own Risk” in Latin, is also endorsed by the American Car Repairers Association for bringing the most business to its members. For your failure to prevent damage to cars parked at the Village lot by closing off sections susceptible to flooding before storms, this award also includes a special citation engrossed on parchment. The Village, of course, denies any responsibility or liability for damage.

4. The Richard Milhous Nixon Prize for Neglect of Water Infrastructure. Instead of a water-main replacement program to continue to carry Croton’s famous pure water, we can now look forward to a continuously leaking and deteriorating water distribution system. Your scheme to make these problems go away was to inject deleterious chemicals into our award-winning water, making it our own Watergate scandal.

5. The Herbert Hoover “Prosperity Is Just Around the Corner” Award. Given for looking the other way while a depression took place in local commercial real estate as evidenced by the growing number of ultra-visible empty storefronts. As a former head of the chamber of commerce, your failure to spearhead efforts to recover from this disaster is unforgivable. No wonder Croton’s home prices were shown to be among the lowest five in property appreciation in Westchester County.

Continue reading "Thanks a Whole Helluva Lot, Mayor Schmidt."

Tools: Print

Crotonblog's Top Twenty

December 31, 2007

As 2007 staggers to a close, Crotonblog would like to thank our letter-writers, commenters and readers for their support and contributions to our Web site.

As we look back on the past year—and our continued growth—Crotonblog would like to share this interesting statistic: the top-twenty stories most-read by our readership.

To put the popularity of these stories in perspective, in 2007, Crotonblog served 91,000 visitors who viewed 184,000 pages. Additionally, during each of those visits, Crotonblog readers spent 2:45 minutes on the site and looked at 2.2 pages.

Tools: Print

Another Empty Campaign Promise by Mayor Schmidt Bites the Dust

December 21, 2007

It started innocently enough at the December 17th village board meeting when Kevin Davis asked Trustee Tom Brennan for an update on his dormant initiative for a new community center. Mr Davis asked, “For my Christmas present for the village board, I am reviving the community center issue. Three months ago, I came to the village board and brought up the community center issue about the survey. The survey results just came out and all that has happened since then to my knowledge is a work session. Trustee Brennan, has anything else happened regarding the community center since three months ago?”

What he got in response was a big mouthful of lip service from Trustee Brennan. Left flat-footed by his own inaction over the past two years, Mr. Brennan awkwardly tried to dance around the issue by assuring Mr. Davis (and onlooking residents) that much was going on “behind the scenes.” To quote his exact Brennanisms, he said, “Well the only thing that’s really happening is that we’re trying to meet with other, other agencies I would say in the village—not agencies but other groups to see if we can formulate other uses that are out there, other buildings, structures. We’re working behind the scenes with different people in the village to see if there is anything else out there besides building a stand-alone building. And that’s really all that’s happening right now Kevin. We’re trying to get some information behind the scenes.”

But Mr. Davis would not let up. He went on to remind the Republican board majority that actions do speak louder than words. Sensing that Mr. Brennan had goofed badly, Mayor Schmidt jumped in to lend Mr. Brennan a helping hand, an action he soon may regret.

Mayor Schmidt claimed to be talking to the fire department about giving up existing space in Croton’s firehouses for public use—presumably to be managed by Croton’s Department of Recreation.

Crotonblog has heard these kinds of calming assurances from Mayor Schmidt and Trustee Brennan before. Dazzled by the prospect of the village finally recognizing that Croton’s huge infrastructure problems made it financially impossible to consider the proposed community center, and puzzled by the idea of substituting Croton’s three firehouses as stand-ins for a community center, Crotonblog did a little sleuthing.

It turns out that Mayor Schmidt and the head of the recreation department had a meeting with the fire chief about Croton Seniors using the Harmon firehouse. This is especially curious since the seniors group already has a room for its use in the Municipal Building. That’s the whole of the progress toward a community center.

If any readers are gullible enough to regard Mayor Schmidt’s statement as indicating any kind of forward action leading to a community center and bearing any resemblance to the truth, Crotonblog has a bridge it would like to sell them. To add a little whiff of ceremony to this whole affair, Crotonblog hereby confers on Mayor Schmidt the Baron Munchausen Award for Flagrant Prevarication with Oak Leaf Cluster. By earning it with this latest whopper, he has really outdone himself.

Video clip (link):

Continue reading "Another Empty Campaign Promise by Mayor Schmidt Bites the Dust."

Tools: Print

Crotonblog's Creed: A Restatement of Principles

December 6, 2007

Because the person using the screen name of Benedict is a newcomer to Croton, Crotonblog feels compelled to respond to Benedict’s suggestion in a comment that it turn itself into “a great virtual town hall”—in short, to turn itself into a chat room. Village Board meetings are held twice a month and are the perfect venue at which citizens can air their views on any topic.

Crotonblog’s original electronic-age purpose was to bring newspaper-quality information and pertinent opinion to citizens quickly because print newspapers now do this belatedly and are declining in circulation. Newspapers do comment editorially on issues in partisan fashion. And newspapers do recommend candidates for public office and praise them or criticize them unmercifully after they are elected. Crotonblog claims the same privilege and indeed does the same. We have no intention of changing what we originally conceived to be Crotonblog’s purpose or operating methods, or to trim our sails to suit changing political winds.

Continue reading "Crotonblog's Creed: A Restatement of Principles."

Tools: Print

'By Their Works Shall Ye Know the Schmidt Administration'

December 2, 2007

Almost three years ago, the Republicans sent the following letter to village residents. In it, they enunciated the principles under which they intended to govern, if elected. Let us now put their letter under the microscope and shine the hard light of truth on what they promised to do and compare it with what they accomplished. Here are their campaign promises and what they actually did. Crotonblog calls the comparison myth versus reality:

Dear Village Resident:

On March 15, 2005, you will be voting for a new mayor and two trustees. Over the course of the next seven weeks, you will hear and read many things about all of the candidates. Understanding that the dissemination of accurate information is vital to the process, we provide for you, our Statement of Principles and ask for your support.

We are committed to:

THEIR LIE: Establishing a non-partisan committee of residents, including seniors and teenagers, to make the long recognized need for a community center a reality. THE TRUTH: Nonpartisan, our foot. There was only one Democrat in the group. And a community center is no nearer reality than it was more than two years ago.

THEIR LIE: Creating new permanent ball fields for our youth’s sport programs. THE TRUTH: Not true. No new permanent fields were created. And they voted “NO” to an agreement with Westchester County under which Croton would maintain the ball fields at Croton Point for exclusive use by Croton kids.

THEIR LIE: Continuing the fight to keep the Millennium Pipeline out of our village. THE TRUTH: It was NY State’s Coastal Zone Management guidelines and the Local Waterfront Revitalization Committee with the participation of Bob Elliott, Fran Allen, Ann Gallelli, Leo Wiegman, Charlie Kane that had already won this battle.

THEIR LIE: Implementing an ongoing program to cleanup and beautify our villages entrances such as those off of Route 9. THE TRUTH: There is no evidence that anything has been done.

THEIR LIE: Retaining a business consultant to look into ways we can enhance the shopping experience in our village. THE TRUTH: No business consultant was retained. It was Ann Gallelli on her own initiative who formed and created the Business Development Committee chaired by Kiernan Murray and made up of property owners in Harmon.

THEIR LIE: Improving the accessibility of our local government. THE TRUTH: What a laugh! They refuse to use e-mail. They failed to hold special Saturday office hours as promised. They are never out and about and are seldom seen in the village.

THEIR LIE: Prioritizing the needs of our village over regional concerns. THE TRUTH: Without regional cooperation we get nothing done—and the Schmidt administration, even with regional cooperation, gets nothing done because they have no network.

THEIR LIE: Being an environmentally conscious administration. THE TRUTH: This is total lip service. They cannot point to a single concrete environmental action initiated by them.

THEIR LIE: Emphasizing fiscal responsibility. THE TRUTH: What a joke! They continue to ignore the budget and break the bank with needless expenditures. For example: (1) a foolish community center survey, (2) wasteful costs of a possibly unnecessary exploration of Eminent Domain, and (3) continuously wasteful legal expenditures.

And we will NOT negotiate with Metro Enviro. THE TRUTH: Not true. Metro Enviro is long gone, and the Republicans have spent over $150,000.00 in “discussions” and “negotiations” with Greentree over possible purchase or seizure of the property by eminent domain.

THEIR LIE: Finally, as the 2005 campaign season begins, we pledge to stay focused on the concerns of our fellow residents and the issues before us. Please feel free to contact any and all of us with your questions, concerns and issues. THE TRUTH: Left unsaid in this statement is that the door is only open if the residents are fawning supporters. A deaf ear is turned to residents who are independents or non-supporters!

You be the judge. Has the Schmidt administration delivered what it promised in 2005? Crotonblog’s answer is a resounding NO!

Tools: Print

Saying Goodbye to Verdana

November 27, 2007

We hope you like our new look. After more than a week of experimenting with permutations and combinations of type fonts, Crotonblog has fixed on what we believe are the most readable fonts and point sizes for text, heads and subheads.

The text is set in Garamond, and it’s the last word in dignity and class. You are reading it right now. Garamond has long been preferred for use as what typographers call a bookface because of its ease of reading and popularity with book designers. One of the oldest of fonts, it takes its name from that of Claude Garamond, a French typecutter active in the 16th century.

Continue reading "Saying Goodbye to Verdana."

Tools: Print

Get the Lead Out—Out of Your Pants, That Is

To justify her minority vote against injecting chemical additives into Croton’s water, Trustee Ann Gallelli asserted her conviction that the Schmidt administration had not done enough to inform residents about the pros and cons of the issue.

Crotonblog would point out that if the Democrats had felt strongly enough about what goes into the human alimentary canal versus what’s going to go into the village’s aging water mains, a mass mailing to residents would have done the trick. Political activity doesn’t have to wait until a month or two before the next election to awaken from its annual Rip Van Winkle somnolence.

Moreover, it’s still not too late. If the Democrats feel that protocol or law was violated in the Schmidt administration’s ramrodding of the issue through in an unseemly hurry, they can still hasten down to White Plains and endeavor to get a judge to issue a restraining order. Paragraphs 15-22 of Chapter 223 of the Village Code about water purity might be a good place to start.

It seems that with the advent of televised village board meetings, the Croton political scene ain’t what it used to be. Even when their best interests are at stake, residents prefer to remain passive spectators watching from the comfort of their homes. Hasn’t the Croton Democratic party ever heard the classic entreaty, “Don’t just stand there—do something!”?

Tools: Print

Page: All Pages | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | Next

Section: Editorial

'We'll Believe Enforcement is the Policy in Croton When We See It'

Of Hometown Newspapers and Clouded Crystal Balls

Fast Times at Ridgemont High the Village Board

Thanks a Whole Helluva Lot, Mayor Schmidt

Crotonblog's Top Twenty

Another Empty Campaign Promise by Mayor Schmidt Bites the Dust

Crotonblog's Creed: A Restatement of Principles

'By Their Works Shall Ye Know the Schmidt Administration'

Saying Goodbye to Verdana

Get the Lead Out—Out of Your Pants, That Is

Search

Recent Articles

Croton Classifieds